Robo…Dog?

I saw this a while ago, and have been meaning to write about it.

Some japanese scientists have invented a robotic guide dog. What I don’t get about this is they say they invented it due to the rapidly aging population. So…there aren’t enough guide dogs to go around? Is that the reason? Why would a robot be more useful due to the rapidly aging population?

For some reason I find it weird that they made a robotic dog, especially since they gave it a synthetic female voice. Why make it a dog at that point?

And aren’t you just swapping one set of problems for another? Sure dogs get sick and have injuries and off days, but robots can run out of battery power, and wouldn’t it suck if your guide bot ran out of juice in the middle of the street? Or what if one of the sensors designed to detect things failed? The difference between real dogs and machines is real dogs have a desire for self-preservation.

I don’t know about you, but I think I’ll stick with the living breathing guide dog.

There are no comments

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

To receive and reply to future comments on this post by email, check this box.Get only replies to your comment, the best of the rest, as well as a daily recap of all comments on this post. No more than a few emails daily, which you can reply to/unsubscribe from directly from your inbox.